Wanting to open a dog walking field, does anyone use one?

[Swifey40]

Could I please pick your brains?? We have about 1/2 acre, which we would of course fence up to 6 foot high. What do we need amd how much do we charge?? I need to make our land profitable, so please help me!!
I am a dog owner, but have never used one of these fields, so am in the dark.
Thank you in advance ☺

The one we use is £10 per hour- we book online and pay by card.
There is a little shed with a table and chairs inside so owners can sit inside if the weather isn't great.
That's a really good little idea I think.
There's a tap with a bowl, agility equipment, poop bags and a bin so you don't have to take it with you.
The parking is great because you can actually open the gate and park in a fenced off area before you enter the dog pen if you wish. So it's extra safe. Great for us with our hyperactive spaniel!

Dog poo bins in the field near me.

I have no idea how they dispose of it though.

There is a sign asking users to be kind enough to pick up after their dogs and also to pick up any random poop that some might have missed.

I must say that it is rare to find any though.

Local council have several where I am. I'm two next hour each other. One for big dogs and the other for smaller. Water facilities, benches and a small shelter. Also ability toys. It's thankfully free as we use it often.

I'm a dog walker and looked into this - it's not cheap.

You'll need to get permission from the council for "change of use" and you'll also need planning permission if you want to erect any kind of permanent shelter there.

You'll also need hygiene certificates off the council if you're going to charge any money for food or drink, and they'll want to inspect your premises. I believe you also need hot running water and hand washing stations if you're going to provide food.

On top of all that, you'll also need business insurance as well as public liability insurance so you're protected if a dog escapes or someone gets injured on your property and tries to sue you.

You also need to factor in maintenance and how you're going to make sure it's private for the people who've booked the field - so how will you stop random people just turning up and using it?

Good luck!

Have you got planning permission?

Round here is £6 for 1/2 an hour.

Basic field with three door shelter and picnic bench.

Lanarkshire in Scotland.

A shelter with tea and coffee in it makes it the best!

I havent got planning permission yet, and I'm worried it will be more difficult because we are Grade 2 listed, and the listing covers the whole field and garden as well as the house!

We are South Somerset

That will definitely make it tricky as you can't operate without it, or without applying for change of use as you'll now be using the land to run a business.

I'm going to apply, I was just getting the lie of the land first.

There is one local to me, regularly used. They have different times for different things. Such as 6pm-7pm is mixed and for dogs that are friendly but have zero recall.

Other times are hired out privately for £6-£7

I think they'd do better with monthly or annual passes to be honest

We use one near to us that is often booked out weeks in advance. It is 1 1/2 acres though, so I’d worry 1/2 an acre isn’t much for large dogs to get a good run around in.

The one we use has dog poo bins, and rolls of bags tied to the fence so nobody has the excuse that they forgot a bag! Also, a tap for dog drinking water (I’ve been to another that had large bottles of water as no tap), benches and a summer house for shelter, bales of hay for dogs to climb on, and some basic agility equipment (mine love the tunnel).

It costs £6 for 30 mins and £11 per hour.

Most of the fields near us, and we are lucky to have a few, charge about the same. But we tend to go back to our favourite as it is always very clean. The owner checks it twice a day and responds to reports of people not picking up poo by banning repeat offenders.

My niece goes to one, it is fully insured and they have dog bins and poo bags, water and some decent agility gear. Grass is well maintained and there is a tarmac/patio area at the entrance so it doesnt get muddy from foot traffic. It also has a rain shelter. £9/hr.

It is a good size (about the size of a football pitch) so she can throw balls a decent distance with her ball thrower (rain shelter is shaped/positioned to allow her to throw from within the shelter)

No idea how they make a profit at that price, maybe they do groups/agility traing too.

Sorry to be a downer but another thought is impact on wildlife. You mention that it's currently a wild field with trees, which makes me thing it's possibly quite rich in micro habitats and potentially an important resource for birds, insects, small mammals etc?
A high, secure perimeter fence and lots of dog activity would, sadly, put an end to any of that.

It depends what's around it though. If it's it's a relatively small area, doesn't form part of a wildlife corridor and there's lots of other similar habitat around then it may not be such an important consideration.

We love using secure dog fields.

I only book ones under an acre, so yours feels a bit small. But if it had lots of good equipment/enrichment items I would be swayed. For us things like logs to climb on, tyres, sandpit for digging would be attractive.

I prefer our local ones which are manned by the owners most of the time as they ensure the bookings before us are gone. I once spent 15 minutes of a 30 minute booking asking someone to leave a field as they continually tried to convince me to allow our dogs to play.

In terms of poo if a field required me to to take it home I wouldn't use that field. You need to provide bins in my opinion.

Also we love ones which are checked regular for poo - the first one we visited we and our pup ended up absolutely covered.

I've used one, £10 an hour. Toys, sandpit, paddling pool, sheltered seating, picnic bench, dog water, agility equipment, poo bin.

Would use it every week if it was in walking distance but unfortunately it's a 20 drive (and I don't drive)

I think getting planning for 6ft stock fencing within the curtilage of a listed building is going to be a barrier tbh

Personally - and I don't want to be a downer - but I think half an acre is too small, but then I have very active mid-sized dogs. Something about the size of a rugby pitch (an acre and a half), with some unmown grass, scrubby undergrowth and so on would be a lot more appealing.

A friend whose dog escapes when off the lead and I have used a couple both are bigger than 1/2 an acre. 1 was three acres the other 1 1/2 . They had parking, essential, both one had picnic tables including under cover, agility stuff, water and the bigger one was partially in woods and had a few well marked foot paths crisscrossing each other. We paid £12 both times. IMO the bigger one was great it took us 20 mins to walk round it on the various footpaths and her dog loved to opportunity to be a dog sniffing and exploring in the undergrowth etc.

One opened locally here and it’s been fully booked for months. You struggle to get a slot.

It’s not just a field though. They have put in lots of “play” equipment for the dogs

i use them for our reactive ddog.
best has three levels of activity/agility equipement so even tiny dogs have jumps etc.
they are all solid good quality.
two big man made ponds to swim/splash in
wooded un mowed areas
seating for humans, covered shelter with a coffee and snack dispensing machine and a big box of dog toys to use
free poo bags and dog treats.
double fenced all round
and in one corner some fake model sheep, which are great for teaching the ddogs to not go near sheep !
the owners move the sheep around regularly so it is always fun to see where they are.
it is £10/hr and book online

I've used one and found it really useful, but I'm not sure half an acre is big enough tbh.

We use them a lot with our reactive dog. One place near us offers 50 min slots (same price as other places for 1hr), and anyone booking is told that they need to leave the field at the end of their slot and then have 10mins to be out of the parking area before the next slot starts. I really like this as I don't have to worry about encountering other people or dogs as we enter or leave. Lots of people who use these fields regularly have dogs with reactivity or other behaviour issues so I think this is a really good idea.

If I was setting up a field like this I'd consider getting in touch with a local behaviourist to see if they would recommend me to their clients (perhaps with a small discount etc).